Thread: JARED KUSHNER CAN’T PASS HIS SECURITY CLEARANCE INVESTIGATION, OFFICIALS SAY

When was the last time you remember listening and reading media reports about concern that someone working in the White House could be black-mailed? The first time I ever heard it was from Sally Yates about Flynn possibly lying or making a misstatement to the Vice President.

Originally Posted by Judy

When was the last time you remember listening and reading media reports about concern that someone working in the White House could be black-mailed? The first time I ever heard it was from Sally Yates about Flynn possibly lying or making a misstatement to the Vice President.

Too many question about the debt ridden Kushner. I don't know how valuable Trump thinks he is to the White House team, but it is a fact that he has become a big distraction. Time for he and Ivanka to go home and raise their children.

The media and anti-Trump and Dems are the only ones who really care about Kushner. There's nothing Kushner has done to hurt the President, the White House or our country, and there won't be. People get excited about him because of the news reports which are usually Fake News or taking normal events out of context.

I would like to see Ivanka and Jared go back to New York, because I think it's the best thing for them personally. I think their businesses are suffering because they are not there to attend to them.

But, the word came down just a couple of minutes ago that Kelly's memo about security clearances will not impact Jared Kushner, so he's not going anywhere until at least the completion of the Middle East peace negotiation is finished. Ivanka probably wants to stay also to get her maternity leave program implemented for working women.

Sigh. "and the beat goes on ..."

Settle in. A Trump, even an in-law Trump, will never back down.

Jared Kushner Should Be Kicked Out Of The White House On February 23, 2018



The republican President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, like the Staff Secretary Rob Porter could never pass a FBI background check to quality for the required security clearance levels to be handling classified, sensitive material in the White House. Mr. Porter because of his history of spousal/ significant other’s abuse and his avoidance of being forthcoming, would be susceptible to blackmail. As this fact became public, he quickly resigned.

The Rob Porter saga had been headline news for about a week because with only an interim security clearance status, he should not have been near all the classified data that he saw on a regular basis. In addition, it is suspected that his boss, Chief of Staff John Kelly was aware that Mr. Porter would never pass the FBI’s background check at an earlier date, but General Kelly still permitted him to deal every day with classified data.



“After the Rob Porter scandal, the president’s Chief of Staff announced last Friday, February 16, 2018 that anyone still working in the White House with only an interim clearance, had to be fully cleared within the week or by Friday, February 23, 2018, or they could no longer work at the White House. This is significant because as per news reports, there is no way that Jared Kushner could pass a FBI background check with his high level of indebtedness which exposes him to being bribed. ”

Jared Kushner is the one operating in the White House who reads every morning the president’s daily briefings prepared by the Intelligence community.

With the Chief of Staff General Kelly’s edict,the question is what will become of the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor on February 23rd. The president is the one who could waive the clearance requirement, but will he?

It is my opinion that Mr. Kushner should be required to leave because he is not remotely qualified to be in the position that he holds, as well as for his inability to be fully cleared for service by the FBI.

The update on 2/20/18 is that the president has decided that Jared Kushner can remain in his current position without passing the FBI’s background check and/ or without the normally required security level status.

Bloomberg has published a lengthy report pertaining to Mr. Kushner’s financial entanglements. There is a link to the entire article, footnoted below.

Here’s the rest of the story…

On August 31, 2018, David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby of Bloomberg penned the following exposé, “Kushners’ China Deal Flop Was Part of Much Bigger Hunt for Cash”

Excerpts:

“Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, wakes up each morning to a growing problem that will not go away. His family’s real estate business, Kushner Cos., owes hundreds of millions of dollars on a 41-story office building on Fifth Avenue. It has failed to secure foreign investors, despite an extensive search, and its resources are more limited than generally understood. As a result, the company faces significant challenges.”

“Over the past 2 years, executives and family members have sought substantial overseas investment from previously undisclosed places: South Korea’s sovereign-wealth fund, France’s richest man, Israeli banks and insurance companies, and exploratory talks with a Saudi developer, according to former and current executives. These were in addition to previously reported attempts to raise money in China and Qatar.”



“The family, once one of the largest landlords on the East Coast, sold thousands of apartments to finance its purchase of the tower in 2007 and has borrowed extensively for other purchases. They are walking away from a Brooklyn hotel once considered central to their plans for an office hub. From other properties, they are extracting cash, including tens of millions in borrowed funds from the recently acquired former NY Times building. What’s more, their partner in the Fifth Avenue building, Vornado Realty Trust, headed by Steve Roth, has stood aside, allowing the Kushners to pursue financing on their own.”

“Kushner Cos. says it will prevail. Laurent Morali, the president, said the company has a variety of contingency plans for the building and its broader portfolio will allow it to sustain any setback. He said he is encouraged by the interest of several potential investors, but declined to name them.”



“Reports that portray it as a distressed situation are just not accurate for the building or for the company,” Morali said in an interview on the 15th floor of the building, 666 Fifth Avenue.”

“But there are challenges all around. The mortgage on their tower is due in 18 months. This has led to concerns that Kushner could use—or has perhaps already used—his official position to prop up the family business despite having divested to close relatives his ownership in many projects to conform with government ethics requirements. Federal investigators are examining Kushner’s finances and business dealings, along with those of other Trump associates, as they probe possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. Kushner has already testified twice before closed congressional committees and denies mixing family business with his official role.”

“This article, which describes new details of the company’s troubled finances and its overseas fundraising efforts, is based on a review of thousands of pages of financial documents and interviews with more than 2 dozen executives, business partners, real estate agents, deal participants and analysts. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deals. Some feared legal reprisals or other retaliation from one of the country’s most powerful families.”



“The portrait that emerges is that of a real estate company established by a pair of penniless Holocaust survivors, its extraordinary expansion by their children, the rise of a grandson to a top White House role and a big bet that has complicated its financial future.”

“It was 2006—the height of the real-estate market boom—when Kushner Cos. agreed to buy 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, then a record for a Manhattan building. All of it was borrowed except for $50 million. The company still holds half of a $1.2 billion mortgage, on which it hasn’t paid a cent. The full amount is due in February 2019.”

“The strain has become increasingly evident across their holdings. One person familiar with the company’s finances describes the tower, with its low ceilings and outdated floor plan, as the Jenga puzzle piece that could set the empire teetering.”

PHOTOGRAPHER: VICTOR J. BLUE / BLOOMBERG

“The family’s idea of how to salvage its investment requires razing the building to the ground and constructing an 80-story tower with greatly expanded retail areas and high-end condominiums. No short- or medium-term return can be expected from such an aggressive approach. Even a return over the long run would be speculative, though Morali describes the plan as “ambitious and creative.” That narrows the pool of investors to those interested in something other than profit. Real estate experts say this almost certainly precludes U.S. companies. More likely: a foreign firm looking to get capital out of its country or seeking a trophy Manhattan property.”

“Before Trump began his rise to the presidency and the 36-year-old Kushner became his senior adviser, 666 Fifth Avenue struggled to attract serious offers. Meetings the Kushners requested were often rejected. After Trump’s nomination, billions of dollars in Asian and Middle Eastern money came under discussion. Two potential deals that made it to advanced stages, with China’s Anbang Insurance Group and a top Qatari sheikh, fell apart.”



“The new status meant the Kushners’ calls were more readily answered—but they came with additional scrutiny, not only of the Kushners but also of the investors. Since January, the company has ceased entering into business relationships with sovereign entities, Morali said. Federal investigators want to know if the Fifth Avenue building’s finances came up in a post-election meeting Kushner had with the head of Russia’s state-controlled development bank.”

https://grondamorin.com/2018/02/20/j...ruary-23-2018/

Having financing (debt) and looking for sources to refinance (cash) is what developers do.

“It was 2006—the height of the real-estate market boom—when Kushner Cos. agreed to buy 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, then a record for a Manhattan building. All of it was borrowed except for $50 million. The company still holds half of a $1.2 billion mortgage, on which it hasn’t paid a cent. The full amount is due in February 2019.”

“The strain has become increasingly evident across their holdings. One person familiar with the company’s finances describes the tower, with its low ceilings and outdated floor plan, as the Jenga puzzle piece that could set the empire teetering.”

Pretty troubling and trump has made him head of his infrastructure project which would include privatizing water & selling our roads, etc. Sorry, but the kid is a jerk loser.
from Food and Water Watch:

There has been so little transparency around the Trump administration. One blatant example is the “Office of American Innovation” — a department Trump created to, among other things, work on an infrastructure plan.

This agency, headed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (no conflict of interest there...), has failed to respond to the Freedom of Information Act request we’ve submitted. We think the public should know what this department is doing, especially since it could have a dangerous impact on the drinking water of millions of Americans.

JARED KUSHNER HID ONE OF HIS COMPANIES ON A DISCLOSURE FORM — THEN PROFITED

BY CHRIS RIOTTA ON 10/12/17 AT 6:00 AM

Jared Kushner's partial ownership of a real estate investing platform is raising ethical questions.ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS RIOTTA[COLOR=rgba(12, 11, 11, 0.]SHARE

U.S.JARED KUSHNERCADREFINANCIAL DISCLOSUREETHICS

Jared Kushner "enriched himself" by not revealing his ownership of a real estate tech business that raised millions of dollars while he served in the government, said a member of the House Judiciary Committee, calling it part of a pattern of unethical behavior that he believes should cause the White House Senior Adviser to be stripped of his security clearance.

Congressman Ted Lieu told Newsweek that Kushner's failure to list a company called Cadre on his initial financial disclosure forms—an oversight that could mean millions for the president’s son-in-law—is an ethical lapse that should have severe ramifications.

"It appears [Kushner] ended up being the beneficiary of that omission," said Lieu, a California Democrat. "He enriched himself by failing to disclose the asset."

Kushner’s lawyer has said that her client’s failure to list Cadre on the initial filing in March was merely an "administrative error." But that "error" allowed Kushner to maintain a stake in the start-up at a time when the three-year-old business doubled its venture funding from rich private investors.


Jared Kushner's failure to disclose a company he had financial interests in allowed him to maintain reduced ownership while serving in the White House, according to records obtained by Newsweek.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, GETTY

Kushner's failure to cite Cadre on his financial disclosure form came as the Office of Government Ethics was deciding whether to grant him a Certificate of Divestiture, which requires incoming government employees to divest "100% of all financial interests" from listed companies so they don't violate conflict-of-interest laws. It also allows those government employees to sell their assets without paying heavy capital gains taxes.

The timeline suggests more than just an inadvertent oversight, but an effort by Kushner to hold onto Cadre rather than be forced to divest his interests in the emerging company, according to ethics experts.

On March 9, Kushner submitted his original financial disclosure form to the Office of Government Ethics. It did not specifically list Cadre as one of Kushner's assets, though he co-founded the company with his brother, Joshua Kushner and his Harvard classmate Ryan Williams, who remains Cadre CEO.

The company was already attracting attention in New York's real estate and tech circles because of its promise to disrupt both industries by allowing investors to buy shares in real estate developments much like they would buy shares of companies on the stock market.

Kushner’s lawyer says Cadre was not specifically cited on the March 9 form because his holding company, BFPS Ventures, acquired his interest in Cadre on February 17. That transaction appears to be noted on his financial records as a $100,000 to $250,000 sale.

But that amount does not match subsequent disclosures. When Kushner finally amended his financial disclosure form on July 21, he valued his interest in Cadre from $5 million to $25 million.


Lawmakers are calling to have Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances revoked for their omissions on financial and security records.REUTERS

That disclosure came after Cadre had raised $65 million more in venture funding from major donors including Andreessen Horowitz, adding to a list of prominent venture capitalists such as Democratic donor George Soros and tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

The disclosure form suggests that Kushner has not fully divested from Cadre. Indeed, a representative for the start-up told Newsweek that Kushner maintains "a small, passive investment," but has "no operational or advisory role," describing the cofounder as "an early investor in the company."

Government watchdogs have a problem with Kushner’s continued ownership of Cadre.

"Mr. Kushner co-founded Cadre and continues to own a significant part of it," the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote to then-Ethics Office Director Walter Shaub on July 6. "As a result [the Ethics Office] appears to have granted the certificate of divestiture based on incomplete information."

Shaub, who resigned on July 19 from the ethics office complaining of the Trump administration's disregard for conflict-of-interest guidelines, never signed off on Kushner’s Certificate of Divestiture. Instead, it was approved by the office's general counsel, David Apol on July 20, the day after Shaub quit. Apol replaced Shaub the next day. The New York Times described Apol as having "a much more cordial relationship with the White House" than Shaub.

Kushner's failure to include the full value of Cadre in his initial filing likely allowed him to hold onto most of his interest rather than be forced to divest, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says. And had Kushner revealed his ownership in Cadre, the company might not have been as attractive to investors, who would obviously be keen on putting money into a company so closely linked to a person inside the White House. A Kushner representative admitted that investors would certainly have known about Kushner’s holdings in Cadre from publicly available information, which concerns ethics experts.

"(Kushner) could potentially have been wanting to not disclose this asset as the latest round of funding was happening," Elana Fine, executive director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, College Park, said. "When a venture capitalist like Jared Kushner invests in a company, they’re always expecting a return on that investment."


Under President Donald Trump, White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner has been tasked with Middle East peace negotiations, heading the American Innovation office and criminal justice reform.REUTERS

The type of business Cadre does is also noteworthy because it sits at the nexus of Kushner’s two power bases: real estate and, now, politics.

Cadre operates as an online platform, connecting wealthy investors like Soros, for example, to emerging real estate properties in which they can buy partial ownership. The billionaire was one of Cadre's initial key investors, opening up a $250 million line of credit between his family offices and Kushner’s start-up.

But ethics experts think the real estate investing platform may allow foreign investors to hide their identities to the public, though not to Cadre insiders.

"It's a novel kind of business," said Virginia Canter, who is executive branch ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Because of the real estate interests that can be traded on the platform, and who can be buying and selling that real estate, [Kushner’s] financial interest in Cadre concerns me … You can have foreign governments or other individuals who have significant interests before Jared Kushner. This is the man responsible for Middle East peace talks and the American Innovation office.

"The point is, Cadre could result in a benefit to him and there’s no way for us to have any insight or to hold him accountable," she added. "In any other administration, he’d be required to divest of this asset. You line this up with [Kushner's] failures on his security forms … and it’s a lot to just say it was an inadvertent failure. It looks like it’s a systemic problem and, in some cases, more than that."

http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushne...illions-679231

When Kushner finally amended his financial disclosure form on July 21, he valued his interest in Cadre from $5 million to $25 million.

The disclosure form suggests that Kushner has not fully divested from Cadre. Indeed, a representative for the start-up told Newsweek that Kushner maintains "a small, passive investment,"

His interests went from $5m to $25m - "a small investment". Get rid of this kid - we don't want him influencing any gov't decisions with the mindset of enriching his somewhat teetering wealth. The infrastructure plan is looking to be more for profiteers than the people and kushner is in charge too?

Originally Posted by artist

His interests went from $5m to $25m - "a small investment". Get rid of this kid - we don't want him influencing any gov't decisions with the mindset of enriching his somewhat teetering wealth. The infrastructure plan is looking to be more for profiteers than the people and kushner is in charge too?

Yep, Kushner's shady dealings should be concerning to anyone paying attention. Lying by omission is still lying.